Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Pope to Return Icon Revered by Orthodox in Russia

Pope John Paul II will give a revered icon that often hangs in his private chapel back to Russia next month in an effort to sweeten the sometimes sour relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Vatican said Saturday that on Aug. 28, a Roman Catholic delegation will give the Mother of God of Kazan icon to Patriarch Aleksy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The icon, which appeared in the Russian city of Kazan in 1579, disappeared to the West around the time of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.